Trump takes up health care with Rand Paul, on golf course

Clarence Walton

Vice President Mike Pence and two top White House officials made the offer Monday night in a closed-door meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus.

Another Freedom Caucus member criticized by Trump, Rep. Jim Jordan of OH, said the GOP health care legislation was not only poorly done, but rushed, broadly unpopular and opposed by moderates as well as conservatives.

The White House resorted to threats against Democrats and members of its own party in an effort to push members to the negotiating table on repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with the American Health Care Act, a Republican alternative championed by Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., but beleaguered by opposition from conservative groups.

When the Freedom Caucus left, Trump, Ryan and Priebus had a meeting and the result was "let's go to war against the people that defended the president when Ryan and those guys said 'abandon him, '" Gohmert recalled.

Trump told the Financial Times if the deal he is trying to negotiate doesn't gain enough support with Republicans, he will turn to Democrats for help.

Some Republicans object to providing government-assisted health care on principle.

"Right now we're just at that conceptual stage about how to move forward in a way that can get everybody to 216", he said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. And they won. They defeated the Republican health care plan.

Rep. Gosar said the Trump-Ryan plan still had too many "mandates and regulations" that have increased the cost of insurance.

The effort to revive the zombie legislation centers on the idea that there is still a path to a compromise between conservative hardliners, who are agitating for a full repeal of Obamacare, and moderate Republicans, who hope to preserve some of the more popular provisions of the law.

The White House said in a statement that the tweet did not violate federal law "as it clearly comes from his personal account and not his official White House account".

"Of course, the White House can disrupt the Affordable Care Act by issuing regulations that destabilize the market and make it more hard to renew [coverage] or enroll for the first time". Contrary to the president's incensed tweets, the AHCA went down to defeat not only thanks to the House Freedom Caucus, but also thanks to the so-called "Coverage Caucus" of more cautious Republicans who balked at the prospect of depriving millions of their constituents of health insurance. In theory this does technically make insurance premiums a little bit higher, but it also ensures that people's medical needs are met. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney - meaning the real estate mogul has now gone golfing almost 15 times since he assumed the role of President less than 80 days ago.

If President Trump had the kind of power that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wields, he would have been able to do something virtually unthinkable in American politics: to punish recalcitrant Republicans from both the Freedom and Coverage Caucuses alike by simply expelling them from the Republican Party altogether.

"For every adjustment you make one way, it has an equal and opposite reaction the other way", he said.

Moderates expressed a reluctance to vote quickly on a new bill.

"I think it would be a mistake to rush it", said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID).

When asked if there will be a health vote by the end of the week, Ryan said he didn't know.

Ryan has suggested that they get together to sort out their differences, but it's not happening, according to one key lawmaker. "The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast".

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